Season 9

“I found them.”

They did it. They actually took the criticism on board about the last seasons. While not brilliant, but a massive improvement in pacing and bringing something interesting to a familiar structure that it always kept me on my toes. The Walking Dead Season 9 felt incredibly fresh as new show runners take hold of the steering wheel and breathe new life into a decomposing show. A new threat and a great loss throughout. If these new writers continue on this path, then expect great things.

Andrew Lincoln, what can I say without sounding like a broken record here. I get bewildered each time. This is Andrews last season on the show and lets just say he didn’t go out quietly. An heroic send off while also still being alive, but then again I think it's the best thing they could of done. I wish Lincoln got more love outside of The Walking Dead fan community, as he was the reason why I stuck around for so long despite the shows downhill in quality. Very few actors can to do that for me. At the moment the show is still standing on it’s own feet without Rick, but his absence will forever be felt. Love you Andrew.

Danai Gurira, Lauren Cohan, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan all knocked it out of the park as well. In terms of the actor that carried the emotional corn and weight this season has to be Danai Gurira, who’s struggling to keep things in balance while restricting her own fire that’s burning deep inside. The same could be said about Lauren Cohan. Despite being in the first half of the season, but seeing Maggie as the leader in this post-apocalyptic world was the most interesting part. Also the direction they took for Negan was the best redirect character decision I’ve seen and the audience (including me) being won over by his devilish charm.

We got new a threat this season and lets just say things aren’t gonna get easy for the Rick crew. They are known as The Whisperers, a group of survivors who wear the skins of walkers in order to pass among the dead and lead herds of walkers. They do deliver on the creepy and menacing description. I find it incredibly interesting that whenever they are not in walker skins, they still whisper to each other back at camp. Samantha Morton plays Alpha, the leader of The Whisperers. The way Samantha moves her head or whenever she stares, it’s super unnerving. Another one the gave me the creeps was Beta played by Ryan Hurst. The character himself doesn't come across as human, but more animal. I say this in a person way, because it adds to the unease. His whispering tone of voice is gravelly and slow compared to everyone else. These two made the show interesting again.

And then the episode ‘The Calm Before’ happened and the rug was pulled right under me. The way it builds up tension and this sense of dread as you wait in anticipation for something horrible to happen was achieve by Laura Belsey brilliant directing and the cast fantastic acting. At this point I didn’t expect this show to still have surprises up its sleeve. The final few minutes hits the audience like a bus. You felt like you were standing alongside the characters again.

The cinematography and music perfectly grounded the story this season. Well, to be fair those were always the strongest elements throughout the entire show.

However, I thought the finale was a bit anticlimactic compared to everything else that happened this season. The whole episode is characters walking around during a storm. I hate sounding like a broken record here, but why do characters keep making stupid decisions? Well I tell you why….to add conflict to the scene for tension purposes. I personally think the drama should happen naturally in the scenes where I would care a little more since the outcome is always the same as the last.

At times this season can be painfully predictable and the writers often taking safe choices, even when they have demonstrated some risk taking.

Overall rating: Angela Kang is the key to all of this.